‘Homeland’ Season 3, Episode 9, ‘One Last Time’: TV Recap

Mandy Patinkin as Saul Berenson and Claire Danes as Carrie Mathison in ‘Homeland’

Kent Smith/Showtime

After all the activity of last week’s episode, Carrie and Brody are both in states of healing. Carrie is recovering at a Naval hospital and is going to be okay (baby too) because Quinn shot her clean through, missing nerve and bone, which was awfully nice of him.

Brody, on the other hand, isn’t doing nearly as well. He’s a heroin junkie now forced to get clean back on U.S. soil, under the watchful gaze of Saul and company. A medical professional-sounding person is charged with keeping Brody alive, but he’s not to be taken to a hospital. He suffers in agony, trying to get a needle.

Sen. Lockhart visits Carrie in the hospital and tries to pump her for information about why Saul was in Caracas. She has no idea. She texts Saul to find out, and he tells Dar Adal to keep her in the hospital, again, away from Brody and their mission.

How did Lockhart find out about Caracas? Only he and Saul were aware of the secret trip. Saul wants their houses swept for any bugs – immediately calling to mind Mira’s lover, who switched the computer mouse while Mira wasn’t home.

Brody’s withdrawal is going poorly. Dar Adal suggests an illegal drug based on a Nigerian plant that accelerates the process and kills the addiction – and brings nasty side effects including violent, mind-bending hallucinations. But Dar Adal swears it works. (How they actually get the drug doesn’t appear to be an issue.)

Under the drug, Brody hallucinates Walker in front of him, and starts to lose it. He breaks a chair and uses a splintered piece of wood to stab his arm over and over. Saul runs in to stop him, and he hallucinates what seems to be a flashback to when he was held captive by Abu Nazir and tried to kill himself in the same way.

Virgil and Max sweep Saul’s house and find the data card in the computer mouse. They scope out where the data card led them. Virgil thinks it’s a Mossad operation, and they see Mira’s lover exit the building.

Saul tries to strike a deal with Brody, telling him he can be a Marine again, if he does this one last thing. Brody wants to die. He refuses to eat. Saul wants him functioning soon, but the window of opportunity is closing. So he goes to his last card – Carrie.

Carrie’s trust in Saul is waning – he’s the reason she has a bullet in her arm. He tells her he needs her to convince Brody to do one more thing, that it’s in everyone’s best interest. Saul’s big idea is to kill the head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, and Javadi’s boss. “The impediment to peace,” as Saul calls him. He says Brody can get to the head of the Guard by seeking political asylum in Iran and getting an audience with him. After he’s killed, Javadi will move into position while working for the CIA.

Saul wants to change things between the U.S. and Iran, so the two countries can sit down and talk. (A prescient line considering recent news events in the real world.) While her boss makes a strong case, Carrie doesn’t have much reason to go with his plan – sending her baby daddy “on a suicide mission” wouldn’t help her, or the baby. But if it means Brody will be “protected” by the CIA instead of hunted by it, then maybe she should help.

When she first greets Brody, the look of warmth on her face shows her love for him, but he silently turns away from her. She needs to convince him within days to do as Saul instructs, before Sen. Lockhart’s confirmation hearing. She asks for a vehicle and takes Brody to a motel. They stand in the parking lot and wait, until a young woman can be seen cleaning the rooms – it turns out to be Dana. Brody screams for her and tries to get out of the car, but he’s restrained, and he curses at Carrie for bringing him here.

Saul recognizes the man in Virgil’s photos as Mira’s lover – but more photos show the man meeting with Sen. Lockhart. Saul confronts Lockhart, who at first denies any wrongdoing. Saul says the man confessed to being Israeli intelligence, and spying for Lockhart. Saul’s only demand is time. He wants the confirmation hearing to begin a month and a half later (so he can finish his mission to put Javadi at the top of Iran’s Guard). He won’t destroy Lockhart for his own benefit, because it’ll be bad for the agency and will humiliate his wife. They have a deal.

Brody’s agitated in his cell as Carrie tells him about Dana – she’s dropped out of school, left home and changed her name. He wants to see her and clear his name. Carrie tells him to do what Saul’s asking, for redemption for the deaths he has caused during the suicide vest mission and the mosque stay in Caracas, not the Langley bombing he wasn’t responsible for.

Brody is finally willing, and the CIA gets him into physical shape in just over two weeks. He goes from being a recovering junkie unable to run a few yards, to training to be a full-fledged CIA agent. Hours before he’s to leave for Iran, he tells Carrie to take him to see Dana. Apparently healed enough to drive, Carrie agrees. But when Brody arrives, Dana doesn’t respond lovingly – she only wants her dad to leave, and to never have to see him again.

On the way back, Brody vows to return from Tehran. Saul’s angry when they return, but Carrie reminds him that the whole operation is only on its feet because of her. They need to learn to trust each other again.

As Brody loads out, Carrie tells him she’ll see him on the other side. She doesn’t tell him about the baby.

Readers, what do you think? Does the episode title, “One Last Time,” refer to one more mission for Brody? Or one last time he sees Dana, and Carrie? Leave your thoughts in the comments.

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